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Panthers hold off Terrapins

Jan 26, 2014 - 4:16 AM College Park, MD (SportsNetwork.com) - Lamar Patterson poured in a game-high 28 points to go with seven rebounds and seven assists as No. 20 Pittsburgh held on for an 83-79 win over Maryland at Comcast Center.

Talib Zanna added 16 points and seven rebounds, James Robinson scored 13 and Cameron Wright chipped in 12 for the Panthers (18-2, 6-1 ACC), who will host Duke on Monday.

"We withstood a hard-playing, aggressive, physical, tough team who?s very good and hard to guard," said Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon.

Dez Wells scored a team-high 19 points and also had four steals and Jake Layman added 18 points, five rebounds and three steals for the Terrapins (11-9, 3-4), losers in four of their last five.

"I've been doing this a long time. I've been an assistant coach and a head coach for about 26 years, and I'm telling you, that's one of the best teams I've ever coached against," Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. "How they're ranked 20th at 18-2 is an absolute joke. I think they're a Top 5 team in this country, to come into this building and really control the game."

Pitt opened the second half with an 11-6 burst to go up 53-43. The Panthers' lead reach 13 points, 62-49, after a pair of Patterson free throws moments later, but the Terps scored six straight make it a seven-point game.

Pitt led 78-68 with 2:54 remaining and appeared to have things nearly wrapped up, but the Terrapins didn't go down without a fight.

Wells used a pump fake on the left wing before driving to the hoop for a three-point play to make it 78-71.

After Zanna split a pair of free throws, The Terps pulled within five, 79-74, with 1:19 left. It would be as close as Maryland would get until an Evan Smotrycz 3-pointer with six seconds left cut it to four.

Wright was fouled and missed both attempts with two ticks showing, but there just wasn't enough time for Maryland.

The Panthers held a 42-37 lead after a back-and-forth first half.

Game Notes

Maryland holds a 5-4 lead in the all-time series ... Pitt beat Maryland 79-59 earlier this season ... Patterson's scoring career-high is 30 points. He has scored at least 20 points seven times this season ... Maryland had 17 turnovers ... The Panthers shot 51 percent from the field.